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Blake Herzinger

@bdherzinger.bsky.social
7.5K followers 358 following 612 posts

I like big navies and I cannot lie. Navy Reservist | CIMSEC | Asian Security | ex-Citi, AEI, USSC, Twitter, Pacific Forum, US Pacific Fleet | Proud Idahoan | Opinions mine, but you're welcome to adopt them

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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Brian Kerg is among the greatest Marines I know. He combines kindness, humility, and a tremendous intellect with exactly the kind of ferocity, warfighting acumen, and physical fitness that the self-appointed "alpha males" imagine for themselves. As ever, thoughtful and well-reasoned for USNI.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I'm no economist but I'm pretty sure this is less than ideal.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Any servicemember in Korea, Bahrain, or Japan that has watched as we ratcheted up tensions with grade schools, families and golden retrievers under the guns of our adversary has wondered, “How viable is this footprint in the missile age?” Now everybody knows.
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Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Excellent thread from @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social —>
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
So the Coast Guard has finally redeployed the cutters formerly tasked to Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), moving them from Bahrain to Singapore and the Philippines.
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War on the Rocks @warontherocks.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The Navy wants 30 unmanned vessels in the Indo-Pacific by 2030. It still has no plan for fixing them there. warontherocks.com/broken-drone...
warontherocks.com
Broken Drone, Far from Home: The Case for Overseas Autonomous System Sustainment
It’s 2028, and the Fujian carrier strike group has just left Yulin, China, for an unknown destination. The U.S. Navy’s “Hedge Strategy” has let commanders
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Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
"As the protective value of physical distance erodes, strategic depth — once conceived in geographical terms — must now be measured in the resilience of data and compute.” @bdherzinger.bsky.social
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Gerry Doyle @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
ok this is really good but compute is not a noun
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Really pleased to make a return to @warontherocks.bsky.social, arguing for a new concept - digital strategic depth. warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/...
warontherocks.com
Gathering Clouds: Building Digital Strategic Depth in the Compute Age
The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have exposed a strategic reality that military planners are only beginning to confront: In a data-centric age,
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Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
“My country right or wrong: when right, to be kept right, when wrong, to be put right.” - Major General Carl Schurz 🇺🇸
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YCAPS - Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies @ycaps.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
📕YCAPS is pleased to announce the Alliance Handbook Series with the usstudiescentre.bsky.social 1) US-Japan @marsecbradford.bsky.social @mikebosack.bsky.social 2) Australia-Japan @mikebosack.bsky.social 3) US- Australia @bdherzinger.bsky.social Access below👇 www.ycaps.org/alliance-han...
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
🧐
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Seva @seva.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
this is the simple answer to people who keep saying NATO expansion matters. Sure, it matters because it presented an obstacle to Russian imperial ambitions. Putin didn't invade because he hated NATO expansion, he hated NATO expansion because he wanted to invade
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
It's an unusual form of isolationism...
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Merry Christmas, shitter was full!
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
New post out: @ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders. (Free to read) samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
samf.substack.com
The State and the Soldier
How should the US military react to a "unprincipled principal"?
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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Information Office of the PRC State Council furiously scribbling down notes on how you roll out the public announcement of a blockade
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
...Happy Hanukkah?
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
wrote this week about a topic there's surprisingly little coverage of in the United States even in think tanks focused on the Chinese military: the everyday lives of Chinese soldiers. foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/16/c...
foreignpolicy.com
What’s It Like to Be a Chinese Soldier?
Behind the parades, recruits face long deployments, strict rules, and limited opportunities.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
*looking for the land Venezuela stole from the United States*
media.tenor.com
a man wearing a yellow shirt with the letter a on the front
ALT: a man wearing a yellow shirt with the letter a on the front
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NK Finney @nathankfinney.com · 17/12/2025
“The white paper outlined this plan without deference to or even acknowledgement of U.S. sensitivities, likely putting China on a collision course with the United States in the region in the months and years ahead.” thediplomat.com/2025/12/chin...
thediplomat.com
China’s 2025 White Paper on Latin America Sets the Stage for Renewed Competition With the US
The new document declared China’s intention to expand its influence on all fronts, even as the U.S. is turning its focus to the Western Hemisphere.
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U.S. Naval Institute @usni.org · 17/12/2025
#OTD 1907: The Great White Fleet departs Hampton Roads, Va. to circumnavigate the world in 14 months, a journey of 43,000 miles that included 20 port calls across six continents.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
At least there's a solid rebuttal to that gawdawful Harrison Kass piece about getting rid of the Marine Corps thehill.com/opinion/nati...
thehill.com
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Sense Hofstede @sensehofstede.nl · 15/12/2025
China to fall out of Germany’s top five export destinations for first time since 2010 – Reuters: ‘dropping to seventh place as shipments decline 10% to 81 billion euros ($95.04 billion) this year’ ‘as imports from [China] rise more than 7% to around 168 billion euros, accounting for 12% of all’
reuters.com
China to fall out of Germany's top five export destinations for first time since 2010
China will fall out of Germany's top five export destinations for the first time since 2010, dropping to seventh place as shipments decline 10% to 81 billion euros ($95.04 billion) this year, a govern...
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Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Great piece by Chris Miller: “The Trump administration’s offer of economic inducements misses the point. Russia doesn’t want a business deal, it wants Ukraine: a building block of Mr. Putin’s new sphere of control and a victory that could humiliate the West and demonstrate his great-power status."
wsj.com
Opinion | Putin Isn’t in It for the Money
That’s why he hasn’t accepted the Trump peace plan. He’s a czar, not a businessman, and he wants to swallow Ukraine.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
The man suspended enforcement of the foreign corrupt practices act for gods sake. What possible reason could you have for doing that if not “doing corruption”?
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Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
My assessment of the Trump national security strategy: "it sees the United States’ adversaries as partners in that war, but it does not see how much U.S. power relies on the voluntary assistance of other countries."
foreignpolicy.com
The Only War the White House Is Ready for Is Culture War
The new U.S. National Security Strategy is a moral and strategic disaster.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Those that can erect protectionist barriers will do so. Those that cannot will be hollowed out by Beijing.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Seeing a leader of the United States adopt this line is revolting. While the US remains imperfect, it is also the global leader in FDI as well as the world’s leading destination for inbound investment. China would love to have an economy like America’s.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
The thing about this is that it makes a real nice place to live.
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Mike Locksey vs a Head of Lettuce @convolutedname.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Dude, you're the incumbents, the only message that works for you is prices actually going down
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Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Government of posters facing a crisis: what if the solution was more posting
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Everyone I know that makes something in a critical industry. Also most people I know that work on economic security issues. Argue against the implementation, the power grab by the executive, the active and apparently intentional harm to alliances, sure.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
We’re talking a lot about Korean and Japanese shipbuilding, which are excellent but I am still not clear how much capacity they have. Why isn’t shipbuilding coming up more in the public discourse around the India trade talks?
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Weirdly I hear it in personal conversations with lots of people but few people are saying out loud that they think Trump’s trade policy is directionally correct, if poorly and boorishly executed.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
You could call it a violation of humanitarian law or any one of several other things. But this is not an armed conflict, unless internal legal justification is using that as an excuse (we don’t know, which is also wrong.). War crimes have a definition and words mean things.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Well, this sucks.
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Zack Cooper @zackcooper.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
After 14 years, I think the time has come to acknowledge that the "Rebalance to Asia" has failed. I've spent the last decade writing and thinking about how to make the rebalance successful, so this is a painful realization. A thread on my new piece for RSIS...
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12/09/2025
Spencer Cox: "I want you look at how Utahns reacted the last two nights. There was no rioting. There was no looting. There were no cars set on fire. There was no violence. There were vigils and prayers and people coming together to share their humanity. And that I believe is the answer to this."
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
The difference between 12 year old Blake visiting a warship and 42 year old Blake visiting a warship is 30 years. Same excitement. HMAS Sydney, I'll see you tomorrow.
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War on the Rocks @warontherocks.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Fresh picks for your summer reading list — recommended by our writers, contributing editors, and staff. warontherocks.com/20...
warontherocks.com
The 2025 War on the Rocks Summer Fiction Reading List - War on the Rocks
Forget the algorithm — this list was created by the humans who bring you War on the Rocks. Here, they share some of their favorite works of fiction. Kerry
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Sense Hofstede @sensehofstede.nl · 25/06/2025
Taiwan’s defence minister says this year’s Han Kuang military drills will involve largest reservist call-up – AFP
barrons.com
Taiwan Says Military Drills Will Involve Largest Call-up
Taiwan said Wednesday military drills to be held in July will involve the largest ever mobilisation of reservists for the annual exercises, which are being extended to improve the island's response to...
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
People have yelled at me for reasons I can't entirely fathom when I've pointed this out before, but both Canada (North Warning System) and Denmark (SSPARS) have incredible leverage; cutting off the feeds from either system would be a six alarm fire in Omaha, Colorado Springs, and elsewhere
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
First, they came for Mark Zaid's security clearance, and I did not speak out, because I was not Mark Zaid Second, and then, uh, third they continued to keep taking Mark Zaid's security clearance and I was like "WTF man?"
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Kai Thaler @kaimthaler.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Firing this many Department of Defense workers at once, who will now desperately need new sources of income, is a huge gift to enterprising foreign intelligence agencies looking for info on the US military and defense sector
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Art of War was a manual for 5th century BC noble failsons to prevent them from losing the entire army to diarrhea. This is why it appeals so much to oligarch failsons of the 21st century AD.
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
If you see this, post a gif from one of your comfort shows
media.tenor.com
a cartoon of archer holding a camera with the words something something danger zone written below him
ALT: a cartoon of archer holding a camera with the words something something danger zone written below him
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Blake Herzinger @bdherzinger.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Unlike many O-4s, I had a strong Resting Skeptical Face before my hinge lobotomy.
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Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
NARRATOR: His power was unchecked.
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